Connie Dieken

She's a smart cookie. Medical student Priscilla Chan inspired her famously private boyfriend, Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, to lead a public health revolution.

Over dinnertime chat, Priscilla shared stories of how patients she interacted with that day were impacted by organ donations. Those who failed to find donors were dying....

Let's set aside the color featured in her saucy book trilogy for a moment. The shade that's dominating the New York Times bestseller list. Literary sensation E.L. James is tickled pink.

The author of Fifty Shades of Grey is simultaneously revving the engines of women and upending the publishing...

I proudly select a Harvard scholar as my Influencer of the Week. A scholar who serves as a global ambassador for YouthAIDS. A dedicated individual who has testified before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. One who has presented to the National Press Club.

A scholar who's also been lambasted...

"Just do what's right," Apple's co-founder Steve Jobs reportedly advised Tim Cook, his successor as CEO of Apple Inc.

That's how shift happens.

Cook proved his inner boldness this week in a major shift with the late Jobs' philosophy. He announced the company's new dividend and buyback plan, essentially bringing...

You could hardly miss it this week. The film Kony 2012 is a triumph of marketing. It's a viral video sensation with more than 76 million YouTube hits and counting since its release just days ago.

The Kony film shines a...

A tiny town is having a huge impact, schooling the world in how to respond to a nightmare in real time, with real grace, with one heartbeat.

Welcome to Chardon, Ohio. Population five thousand, give or take a few. Today there are three fewer, taken out by gunfire in the...

The Oscar's Red Carpet was the center of the universe Sunday night, featuring wildly expensive couture and jewels, taut bodies and sometimes tauter faces. But turns out, fashion's biggest night was hijacked by J.C Penney.

Yes, J.C. Penney. The boring one.

The 110-year-old...

He's a point guard who's making a point, loud and clear. The New York Knicks' Jeremy Lin proves it's time to ditch two stereotypes: that Asian Americans aren't NBA material -- and that brainy Harvard graduates aren't either. More importantly, Lin is influencing many people with unrecognized talents that they,...

In a week that's featured the return of Adele's powerfully emotional voice, the silencing of Whitney Houston's soaring vocals, and the imminent finale of Glen Campbell's crooning to Alzheimer's disease, I feel compelled to share this truth: Use your voice. It's the center of your influence.

Ever lost your voice?...

The All American linebacker with the crazy face paint -- that's how Mark Herzlich was defined during his stellar football career at Boston College.

Then came cancer.

Doctors hoped to redefine the 2008 Atlantic Coast Conference Defensive Player of the Year as Mark Herzlich, cancer survivor. Finished...

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer's tarmac tiff with President Obama influenced a major book bump. Who knew that her Scorpions for Breakfast tome even existed before the photo-op transformed it into a best-seller?

Apparently not many. Brewer's book rocketed from No. 343,000 up to No. 7 in Amazon book rankings as...

Wikipedia went dark for a day and illuminated the world on how to influence boldly in the 21st century.

The site's massive one-day protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) stopped something, alright. It stopped the Hollywood-inspired bill in its tracks. The political sponsors quickly turned tail after a...

2011 separated the influencers from the persuaders. One by one, once-admired leaders from the athletic office to the corner suite to Wall Street toppled like dominoes. Turns out they lacked influence. Why? Because they misjudged what influence really means.

My list of the "Top Influencers Alive" may surprise you. That's...

It was the silence heard around the world: Rick Perry's brain freeze. Perry's mental cramp during the GOP presidential debate stole the show and was quickly hailed as one of the worst memory meltdowns in history. It was a cringe-inducing 43 seconds as Perry scrambled to recall the name of...